40.Lord’s Prayer I-III Review

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40.Lord’s Prayer I-III Review

<Luke 11:1-4>

Jesus' Teaching on Prayer

 ¹One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."

 ²He said to them, "When you pray, say:
   " 'Father,
   hallowed be your name,
   your kingdom come.
 ³Give us each day our daily bread.
 ⁴Forgive us our sins,
      for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
   And lead us not into temptation.' "

<Matthew 6:9-13>

 ⁹"This, then, is how you should pray:
   " 'Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,
 ¹⁰your kingdom come,
   your will be done
      on earth as it is in heaven.
 ¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
 ¹²Forgive us our debts,
      as we also have forgiven our debtors.
 ¹³And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.'

There is this saying “My deepest wish I have inside my heart defines who I am.”  This means, “What I am pursuing now or what I desire to be the most important thing” confirm‎s the identity of the person.  If my deepest wish in the heart defines who I am, and my prayer expresses that specific wish I have, then what I am praying about could be the indicator of who I really am; right?  I had asked you guys before, “What kind of prayer are you guys praying right now?”  If our deepest desire gets expressed through the prayer and that prayer defines who we really are, then this Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus had taught us “to pray like this” would most accurately reveal who we really are.  In other words, what Jesus had taught us “to pray like this” means, we, believers, must have contents of Lord’s Prayer as our wish and desire, and those who have this as their wish and desire can define identity of who “I am” in the most accurate way.  That’s why we are studying Lord’s Prayer.

Also, Lord’s Prayer is the prayer Jesus had taught us, and it is divulgence of God’s will to us as well as God’s deep desire.  Therefore, through the Lord’s Prayer, we must discover God’s deepest desire and make that prayer as our prayer.  And by doing so, we can be aligned with God’s deepest desire.  By God’s making us to wish for things He desires, we can learn of a fact that God will make us as He had planned.  And this can be found in Lord’s Prayer.

We’ve learned that from Luke 11:1 that disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.  But this wasn’t b/c they didn’t know how to pray, but b/c they wanted to know what Jesus’s slogan was or what He was pursuing. 

Ex: Pharisaic movements, Apostole John- at the time prayer statements included their own theological understanding, idea, hope, and etc.  So they memorized them couple of times a day, especially the Book of Psalm was pretty much memorized to them. 

1. The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew Chapter 6, which we have read as today’s verse is part of “sermon on the Mount.”

2. Review from last week:

Jesus in NT	Israel in OT
Ch. 1:  pedigree of Jesus -> His life span	Life story of Israel
Ch. 2:  Jesus gets expelled to Egypt  -> comes out from Egypt	Israel came out from Egypt
Ch. 3:  Jesus gets baptized (after 30 yrs of coming out from Egypt)	Crossed the Red Sea
Ch. 3-Ch. 4:  Jesus gets tempted in the wilderness. -> goes up the mountain and teaches disciples(new Israel) “sermon on the Mount”(laws for heavenly people)	Received the laws at the Mount Sinai (laws to obey when living in Cannan) “Mount Sinai” (laws to obey when living in Cannan.  Cannan symbolizes “heaven”

How does Exodus in Old Testament end?

<Deuteronomy 27:9-26>- Curses From Mount Ebal

 ⁹ Then Moses and the priests, who are Levites, said to all Israel, "Be silent, O Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the LORD your God. ¹⁰ Obey the LORD your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today."

 ¹¹ On the same day Moses commanded the people:

 ¹² When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. ¹³ And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.

 ¹⁴ The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:

 ¹⁵ "Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol—a thing detestable to the LORD, the work of the craftsman's hands—and sets it up in secret."
       Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"

 ¹⁶ "Cursed is the man who dishonors his father or his mother."
       Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"

 ¹⁷ "Cursed is the man who moves his neighbor's boundary stone."
       Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"

This part is the climax, where God makes a covenant with Israel.  After Israel crossed the Jordan, they entered Cannan, and stood up at the Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.  And as Levites started to recite about twelve covenant, they started everything by saying “Cursed is the man..”  And then people accepted it by saying “Amen.”  But through “sermon on the Mount,” where God is making covenant with His people, how does the reciting start?  It starts by “Blessed is the man..”  Israel in the Old Testament was under law, which means they were under the punishment of sin.  And when covenant with God is made under this condition, a covenant had to end with “Cursed is the man when sin..”  But new Israel in the New Testament was no longer under law, because Jesus Christ had completed all the law through His full obedience to God, and His completion of law led to blessing that the covenant starts off by saying “Blessed is the man ..”  And following Old Testament’s covenant, there comes an event where God tells Moses to write down each song and sing.   

<Deuteronomy 31:19>

 ¹⁹ "Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them.

These songs God commanded Moses to teach Israel and sing were the songs that reminded them of how disobedient they were to God.  So they sang these songs every day, and these songs testified about their disobedience to God. 

Why was the 12 covenants given to Israelites in the Old Testament at the Mount Ebel started off by saying “cursed in the man who..” versus the new Israelites in the New Testament received covenant with “blessed is the man who..”?  

3. In Old Testament: Songs God commanded Moses to teach Israel and sing every day were songs testifying how sinful & disobedient people they were to God. 

In New Testament:  Songs Moses taught Israel to memorize and sing were praising God because new Israelites were the people God saved from curse and gave blessing.  And this song is Lord’s Prayer. 

4. The Lord’s Prayer consists of 7 different prayer requests, “7” symbolizing “complete number of Sabbath.”  What are they?

1)    Hallowed be your name,

2)    Your kingdom come,

3)    Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

4)    Give us today our daily bread.

5)    Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,

6)    And lead us not into temptation,

7)    But deliver us from the evil one.

The number seven is a “complete number of Sabbath” to Israelites.  That is, it can be understood as Jesus had taught us the complete prayer to us.  Therefore, just by studying and understanding well of what Lord’s Prayer is, we can clearly know what we have to pray for.

5. Who are the first three parts (#1-3) directed to?  God “thou petition”    

    What about the remaining four parts (#4-7)? Us “we petition”

6. When God is referred to as “father” or “mother” in the Bible, it is referring to Creator or Savior.  But “Our Father” in Lord’s Prayer refers to “Abba” which means Daddy.   Therefore, this word, by nature and entity, is a word that can be used only between real father and son. 

Jews used the word “father” to refer God as their Creator and Savior, but Jesus’s calling God “Abba” was first and only language by Him alone.  The reason is, Jesus Christ was, by nature and entity, God’s one and only Son that His nature and entity was also God.  God was Jesus’s true Father.

But the important thing is, Jesus is telling us to call God in heaven as “dad,” too, when we pray.  This means, it is an amazing declaration stating that we are now joining to become God’s one and only son as Jesus Christ is.  We, church, have become God’s real sons and daughter just like Jesus Christ.   Christianity departs from there.  So without this father and son relationship is not established first, prayer cannot begin.  That’s why Lord’s Prayer begins with “Father.”  Therefore, prayer is not something that has been made between Creator and creature to fulfill the need of creature; instead, prayer is something that had already, before the creation of the world, begun between the conversation of God the Father and God the Son.  That is prayer!  The prayer Jesus prayed to God day and night repeatedly and habitually when He came to earth as man wasn’t because of His weakness, but it was original conversation He had with God even before the foundation of the world. 

That is why, to believers, prayer cannot be explained apart from Jesus Christ.  Are there any places in Old Testament that explain about what prayer is?  Are there any methods explained about how to pray?  No, there are not!  This is the proof that unless Jesus, who used to pray in eternity, comes and teaches us how to pray, we, humans, can never ever understand or know what a prayer is.  That’s why, prayer cannot be a prayer unless father and son or father and daughter relationship gets established.  And if this doesn’t get established first, prayer will merely become a righteous or religious deed.  Unless this loving relationship with God does not get verified first, prayer itself cannot even get started.  

7. When Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray (The Lord’s Prayer), He said, “Our Father,” not “My Father.”  Why?

B/c through Jesus Christ, God became our own Father too.  That’s why Jesus had thought us to pray like this: “Our Father in heaven..” 

Therefore, when we close our eyes and pray like that, we must feel this amazing blessing and new identity we got from God and be thrilled by it.  The moment we call out our Father by saying “Our Father in heaven,” we are being confirmed and declaring of a fact that, “I am His son.  I am His daughter.  My Father loves me with the same love He had for Jesus Christ.”  Therefore, how can we exchange this amazing heavenly prayer with peoples’ prayer merely screaming out for their needs? 

Jesus did not call God as “My Father,” but He said, “Our Father.”  This implies that prayer is not something we say to fill up our individual needs.  Who are “we”?  It is referring to church; right?  So it is teaching us that prayer has to contain the hope of church, the covenantal congregation.  That’s why it is saying “our Father,” not “My Father.”  Therefore, strictly speaking, prayer of a believer has to gradually change from requesting for individual requests to praying for church’s hope and desires.  Likewise, a prayer has to depart from father and son or father and daughter relationship.

8. Where should be the starting point of a believer’s prayer?

It should be knowing who our Father is, and understanding how He became our Father.  Otherwise, your prayer is not a prayer. 

<Small Group>

Now, we’ve learned that a prayer defines our true identity of who we really are.  Write down your prayer now and share with others in our group!!!

And say hi to each other.  This is your small group for next three month. J